Why are We Going this Way? Who Picked this Route?

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Two things have come to mind over the last week or so as it relates to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ pending announcement today about the next steps in further re-opening the economy of our state. These two things I know are not only at the forefront of my mind, but many others with which I deal on a regular basis. These two things, also, are two things about which there seems to be wide disagreement with respect to ways in which our elected officials and other leaders in our society should proceed.

Those two things? When and How will we get to the next phase of our re-opening. 

What I think is most challenging about the ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions is I believe within all of us is our own ‘patently obvious’ course of action that should be taken. “If only our (president, governor, mayor, boss, pastor, family member, and so on…) would just do X or ALLOW us to do Y then we could move forward and get over all this mess.”

I think to allow ourselves to be trapped into this kind of thinking winds up hurting us more than helping, for where it places our focus and emotions during a time which is so anxiety-ridden. 

The fortunate thing about all this is we KNOW we are not the first to wrestle with returning to a familiar place after having been, for lack of a better term, exiled for a season. As we think about these things, I invite us to hear part of the story of God’s people returning to the promised land after being exiled…

Hear these words from Exodus thirteen, verses seventeen through twenty-two:

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”

After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

We could spend a few days unpacking all that is in this passage. While understanding that, there are a few things upon which we could draw as we move forward in our time of COVID-19 exile…

First, notice this passage begins and ends with a focus on God’s leading them. God led them on a path that was in their best interest, and God went ahead of them on the journey to help lead them back to the promised land, whether day or night. At no point could they escape the reality that God was leading them.

Understanding good men and women can disagree quite thoroughly about our best path forward from our current situation back to a situation where our economy is a little more open, I wonder if good men and women of the faith are intentional about following God’s direction in this time. Where the discussion of what is God’s leading gets messy, though, is that our primal instinct is to seek that which we want to meet our own needs, wants, and desires. Rather than get caught up in which voices are those God is using to determine our course forward, I simply want to put before us today the question of are we even looking for God to lead us, or have we turned this into a political or ideological or theological argument that furthers the division and rancor that seems to permeate seemingly all public and private discourse in life?

The second thing I want to draw your attention to in this passage concerns the route which God chose for them to return to the promised land. If you go and look at a map of the return, you will notice the fastest and shortest route, which is OBVIOUS to all involved and would make the most sense if your interest is to get back to things as soon as possible, is NOT the one God chose for his people. Not even close. Instead, God took a look at the big picture and asked which path would be in the best interest of his people in the long run. So, rather than run along the coast along the shortest route, they took the long way. If you go and read the rest of the story, you will find some interesting things that happened along that journey, for it was by no means easy for them and some of what happened along the way you still know today, even if you don’t realize it right now. But they DID eventually get to where God was leading them, even if it was by a path that at first blush did not make the most sense.

Look, I don’t know, and neither do you, what is going to be the best path forward from this mess. What may be inherently obvious to you may be completely ridiculous to another, and the reverse also is true.

Rather than turn it all into an argument, my challenge to us all today is to put as much fever and passion into seeking God’s will as we currently are in the midst of the rest of all this mess. Imagine what might be transformed, starting with ourselves, if we devoted all this effort to prayer as opposed to the other garbage which does nothing but cause division and rancor.